Powerful Waterspout Caught on Video in Australia: WATCH

A videographer in Batemans Bay, Australia in New South Wales caught a massive water twister on video over the weekend and followed it for a full seven minutes. Gorgeous.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

NYC Opening Food And Water Stations Today As Lights Remain Out

State Sen. Daniel L. Squadron provides the details on how New York City will be helping those in the black out area get the essentials:

It's going to be days and weeks until things are back to normal in parts of our city. In the meantime, it's important to stay safe and make sure you're prepared for the possibility of extended power outages, vastly reduced transit services, and overtaxed city services.

The City is setting up food and water distribution sites throughout the blackout zone in Lower Manhattan. The sites that will open at 3PM Thursday south of 14th Street are as follows:

    •    10th Street between Avenues C and D
    •    Catherine Street between Monroe and Cherry Streets (Smith Houses)
    •    Pitt and Houston Streets
    •    Grand and Clinton Streets - water only
    •    Bowery and Division Street (Confucius Plaza)

Maybe some of you can get word to friend's still down there?

Meanwhile, portions of lower Manhattan are slowly regaining power, but the International Business Times reports it will still be a little while for electricity to be flowing as normal: "All Manhattan customers of underground electrical power will have service restored by Saturday, Con Edison has promised. The exceptions will be residences or business with excessive water damage that could interfere with electrical operations."

NYC Updates, h/t Corey Johnson

BY ARI EZRA WALDMAN

New York City Council candidate Corey Johnson has been an incomparable source of information in Sandy's aftermath. He was not only on location when the facade of a building broke off in Chelsea yesterday, but throughout the entire hurricane ordeal, he has kept everyone in New York City updated on damage, progress, and status of the recovery through his public Facebook page. I encourage you to "Like" his page and follow his updates. Also, follow him on Twitter at CoreyInNYC.

His latest update gives us the full range of what is going on in New York right now, available here:

NYC UPDATES --

Thank you to all of our first responders, police officers, firefighters, utility workers, volunteers and medical professionals who have been working non-stop the past 24 hours.

ConEd says power to be restored to all customers within 4 days. Very spotty cell service in Lower Manhattan or Dumbo. Texting seems to be working though.

Penn South / Mutual Redevelopment Houses in Chelsea has power because it runs off of generators and not ConEd. 

The rest of Chelsea below 29th Street, the West Village, Greenwich Village and Soho are still without power.

Hell's Kitchen did not lose power. There is a shelter in Hell's Kitchen at the High School of Graphic Arts if anyone needs supplies, food, water or a charge for their phone.

Expect most subways to be down for the rest of the week; Some City buses now running with no fares (free) and busses will become more available starting at 5 PM.

23 fires still burning; 4,000+ trees reported down; 6,000+ in emergency shelters; LGA completely under water.

Over 80 homes were completely destroyed in Breezy Point, Queens from a massive fire.

Coney Island is still dealing with major flooding.

Queens Midtown, Holland and Battery Tunnels remained closed.

East River Bridges are open. Rockaway Bridges remained closed.

To volunteer to help the city clean up please email nycservice@cityhall.nyc.gov.

 

ed note: Corey Johnson is Towleroad's former political director and has been a longtime friend and contributor to the site -mg

Satellite Photo Shows Hurricane Sandy's Massive Size

Check out this global view taken by NOAA's GOES-13 satellite on Sunday morning, October 28 at 9:02AM EDT. You can see the massive size of the hurricane as it churns up the east coast.

Hurricane Sandy Strengthens to 85 mph Storm, Turns Toward Land

Hurricane Sandy has picked up strength overnight as it prepares to turn northwest and strike the east coast:

At 5 a.m., the huge storm was producing sustained winds of 85 miles an hour after turning due north, according to the National Hurricane Center. It was expected to veer again to the northwest later Monday morning and take dead aim at the coastline of New Jersey.

The swing to the northwest can be observed in a satellite loop of the monster storm.

High wind warnings related to Sandy include ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA, DE, MD, VA, WV, OH, MI, NC, GA, and Washington D.C. According to the NWS, tropical storm force gusts of 41 mph have now reached Boston.

In NYC:

As the storm bore down on some of the nation’s most densely populated areas, city and state officials went into emergency mode. The New York City subway system and all of the region’s commuter trains and buses were shut down. The major stock exchanges called off all trading for Monday and Broadway theaters canceled their shows on Sunday evening and Monday.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg ordered the evacuation of more than 370,000 people in low-lying communities from Coney Island in Brooklyn to Battery Park City in Manhattan and gave 1.1 million schoolchildren a day off on Monday. The city opened evacuation shelters at 76 public schools.

Here's a LIVE shot of NYC.

New York's normally packed transit stations are abandoned. Check out more photos on the MTA's Flickr feed.

Air Force reconnaisance aircraft reported a 28-mile wide circular eye earlier this morning.

An updated forecast track is here.

Off the coast of North Carolina, the crew of a 180-foot, three mast tall ship, HMS Bounty, has abandoned ship:

The 17 person crew donned cold water survival suits and lifejackets before launching in two 25-man lifeboats with canopies. The Coast Guard continues to monitor the situation and assess the weather conditions to determine the soonest Coast Guard aircraft or surface assets can be on scene to conduct effective rescue operations....An air crew from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City launched aboard an HC-130 Hercules aircraft, which later arrived on scene and reestablished communications with the Bounty's crew. The vessel was reportedly taking on water and was without propulsion.  On scene weather is reported to be 40 mph winds and 18-foot seas."

5:30 am, Battery Park City:

Hurricane Sandy May Be 'Worst Storm in 100 Years' for Northeast U.S., Says Forecaster

Paul Kocin, a National Weather Service meteorologist in College Park, Maryland, says the models they are seeing of the potential impact of Hurricane Sandy rival the New England hurricane of 1938 and it could be the worst in a century, Bloomberg reports:

“What we’re seeing in some of our models is a storm at an intensity that we have not seen in this part of the country in the past century,” Kocin said in a telephone interview yesterday. “We’re not trying to hype it, this is what we’re seeing in some of our models. It may come in weaker.”

The hybrid storm may strike anywhere from the Delaware- Maryland-Virginia peninsula to southern New England. The current National Hurricane Center track calls for the system to go ashore in New Jersey on Oct. 30, although landfall predictions often change as storms get closer to shore.

The storm has already killed 21 people in the Caribbean.